THIS being the season of the Oscars, we’ll title this yarn, “Anticipating Vinny.”

This is what every Jet player, coach, fan and follower is doing right now as the 2000 season approaches: Anticipating the grand return of Vinny Testaverde from his horrible, season-shattering ruptured left Achilles tendon.

The snap of Testaverde’s Achilles, a shot heard ’round the Jets’ world, had such a devastating effect on the Jets’ ’99 season it took them weeks and weeks to recover from the shock. And by the time the Jets did get their feet back under them, their season of such promise was long decided.

It was an 8-8, playoff-less failure.

Sure, the growth and emergence of Ray Lucas as a competent, winning quarterback was a positive that was born from the Testaverde adversity. But how many Jets fans have you spoken to during the offseason who have been raving about the ’99 season for the discovery of Ray Lucas?

No. It’s all about Testaverde. It was all about Testaverde before last season and it’s all about Testaverde entering 2000.

Before ’99, the questions raging on the street were all about, “Can Vinny do it again; can he lead the Jets to the Super Bowl this time?”

During this offseason, the word on the street about the Jets has been this: “How’s Vinny? Is he coming back? Can he be as good as he was in ’98?”

“Every time someone talks about the Jets it’s about Vinny,” Wayne Chrebet, one of Testaverde’s closest friends, was saying this past week.

“I don’t think anyone’s asked me about the Jets without asking me how Vinny’s doing. They all want to know, ‘Will he be back?’

“If I know Vinny, he’ll be back better than ever,” Chrebet said. “He’ll bring us back to where we were.”

Al Groh, the Jets’ first-year head coach, is holding his breath like everyone else that Testaverde will, indeed, return to the form that lifted the Jets to the AFC Championship Game and Testaverde himself to the Pro Bowl after the ’98 season.

“Certainly, until he’s back, everyone’s got a little level of anxiety,” Groh said. “It’s like a stock that you bought at $100 and it went down to $65 and everyone tells you, ‘It’ll be back.’ You believe them but you’ll feel a lot better when it’s back at $100.”

How exactly Testaverde is doing is up for debate, because he’s been working out — with the blessing of the Jets’ coaching and medical staff — at his home in Tampa.

Groh said the warm weather is more conducive for Testaverde to be working out and running in, and that, in a month or so, when he warms up here, his quarterback will make his way back to Weeb Ewbank Hall.

By all accounts — those from Groh, who’s monitoring Testaverde through the team’s medical people, and from Chrebet, who stays in close contact with Testaverde — Testaverde’s rehabilitation is very much on schedule.

It’s expected that he’ll open training camp in July as if he never had the injury.

Despite numerous requests, Testaverde declined to be interviewed for this story. That, however, shouldn’t be construed as if he’s trying to hide anything.

“From everything I can see, his rehab is progressing on schedule, and I have every reason to anticipate that, on the first day of camp, he’ll be ready to operate just like the Vinny we’re all accustomed to,” Groh said.

Said Chrebet: “We talk pretty often and I’ve seen him since the season ended. I fully expect him — and I know he fully expects — to come back even stronger.”

There was word floated near the end of last season that, had he not been placed on the injured reserve list, which precluded him from playing at all in 1999, Testaverde could have suited up for the playoffs had the Jets gotten there.

“I watched Vinny take some drops on the sidelines at the end of last season and he wasn’t ready for prime time,” Groh said. “It was fun to see him out there taking drops. It was encouraging for everyone’s morale. But Vinny wasn’t ready to come out of the bullpen.”

Chrebet, though, did notice a few things about Testaverde late last season when he was throwing that encouraged him.

“You never know if he could have played or not, but the way he was throwing the ball on the sidelines you could see the rest did his arm well,” Chrebet said. “He throws the ball well anyway, but there was some extra juice to his throws, a zip like I’d never seen before.”

In that way, we could look at Testaverde, who’ll be 37 in November, like a veteran pitcher who’s arm was well-rested after a year of not throwing regularly.

There is now a similar anticipation about Testaverde as there was a year ago — only this time the questions are different.

“There was a lot of anticipation and great expectation after we got to the AFC Championship Game,” Jet WR Dedric Ward said. “And then, when you lose a guy who you were counting on as a leader — watching him go down in the first game — I wouldn’t say everyone hung it up, but there was a definite period of time when people were looking around to each other as to who was going to step forward and carry the team.

“We were almost in a turmoil. Finally, it was more a process of us having to redesign what we could do.”

As all Jet fans witnessed, it was too late before that redesign took shape.

“It probably feels like years upon years for Vinny since he last played,” Chrebet said. “I’m sure he’s antsy to get back out there. I know we fully expect to get back to that level we were on [the AFC title game].

“We’ve got a lot of players on this team that can make plays, and it won’t take very long to get back into the flow of things. I fully expect to be back to where we were two years ago … and then one more.”